Shadow Thieves

The Shadow Thieves

The Shadow Thieves is a secretive and powerful consortium of thieves' guild in western Faerûn that is headquartered in the Amnian city of Crimmor as of the 15th century DR, having relocated from their base in Athkatla the century prior. They were formerly the most prominent thieves' guild in Waterdeep, but were routed from the city by the Masked Lady Lhestyn Arunsun. From the early-14th century onward, they have controlled many of the criminal operations along the Sword Coast, growing into the largest and most prosperous thieves guild in all of Faerûn, with ultimate goal of further increasing their collective influence and wealth. The organization operates under two oaths, which were written by its first Grandmaster, following their exile from Waterdeep:

The Shadow Thieves will never again be brought so low and disgraced as they were in their exile.

They will take their vengeance upon the city of Waterdeep and the Arunsun family.

Activities

The Shadow Thieves are discreet in their activities, even in Amn where they are known by just about every citizen of the nation. Even the lower-ranked members, who earn their gold as beggars, cut-purses, thugs, and fences follow these rules as they go about their daily duties. Even these minor operations allow the Shadow Thieves to insert itself into the daily lives of Amnian citizens. Thus, a friendly game of chance run by a con artist gamer could lead to higher and higher stakes and a great take of gold for the agent and overall guild.
Many citizens rely upon the manipulative and illicit services provided by the Shadow Thieves. Business people have become reliant on their protection rackets, money lenders, and the enforcers and thugs they hire out. Politicians and government officials often hire the guild's spies and burglars to obtain guarded knowledge, or plant false information. The multitude of traders and merchants in Amn receive a myriad of unique mercantile opportunities provided by the guild's smugglers and pirates.
The agents of the guild are just as ruthless as they are secretive. If a situation requires the use of violence, they only take prisoners if a person is deemed worthy of capture (i.e., they possess arcane, political, or financial power). The captives are then relocated to a safehouse until ransom can be collected or the person otherwise manipulated.

Outlook

Secrecy is the key to the immense success of the Shadow Thieves, an outlook that begins with the ruling Shadow Council and spreads to every officer, agent, and member. Only the upper echelon of the organization know the full complexities of their hierarchical structure, with individual members only aware of their immediate associates. Members work exclusively with their known comrades so they can never implicate more than a handful of other thieves. Failure to maintain the secrecy of the Shadow Thieves would cost the guild money, an unacceptable occurrence that is readily punished by death.
The Shadow Thieves highly value loyalty, wealth, and power. The inner circles maintain a familial loyalty, and any member who puts the interests of the guild above their personal in the face of danger are handsomely rewarded - provided they survive. Faerûnians outside the guild who possess neither riches nor power are seen as expendable, mere tools that can be used to further the aims of the guild. If an outside thieves guild were seen to have some value, they would be brought into the Shadow Thieves either by persuasion or outright force. If they prove to be inept, weak of will, or just poor of pocket, they are outright destroyed.
If a ranked member of the Shadow Thieves dies, or is removed from power, the existing members of the same rank can put forth candidates and vote upon a successor. If the member left in good standing, their families are fully taken care for.

Abilities

Individual Shadow Thieves of Amn are skilled combatants, often performing acrobatic feats, evasive dodges, or if-needed, blind-fighting. In addition, they are experts of disguise, subterfuge, and infiltration. In the rare instances where they are caught in illicit activities, they are well-equipped to talk their way out of capture and apprehension. Those capable of arcane or divine spellcasting often focus on the use of spells and magical items that enhance the agent's stealth, such as invisibility or sanctuary, or provide them with more information, like ESP and speak with dead.

Organization

During the 14th century, the Shadow Thieves were ruled by the 8-person Shadow Council from the city of Athkatla, which in turn was led by the Grandmaster of Shadows. The guild is a strongly structured organization, which grants them a level of protection to the organization as a whole.

Anonymity

The power structure of the organization prevents individual members from possessing knowledge of the identity of any other Shadow Thieves save for their immediate superior and the agents who work directly beneath them. This dynamic allows members of varying ranks within the hierarchy to work on the same operation, even if in very different capacities. If an agent learns the identity or goals of a superior, they are often promoted to such a rank that they work closely with that agent, as a reward for their investigative skills. If the discovery is proven to be a result of egregious error on behalf of the superior, that agent is punished and the uncovering Shadow Thief maintains their current rank.

Hierarchy

Shades

The Council divides the guilds area of influence into six territories, or "sects". Six of the council's eight members, referred to as Shades, serve as the supreme commander of one of these regions, while the additional two councilors handle foreign intelligence and operations in outlying areas.

Cloakmasters

As of 1370 DR, the Shades were each aided by at least two Cloakmasters, whose domain consists of a region or part of a city whose population does not exceed 10,000 individuals. While typically one Cloakmaster oversees a rural area and another administers a large city, larger metropolises are often divvied up among several lieutenants. These officers only report to their respective Shade and have no knowledge as to the identity of their peers, even if they work within the same city.

Guildmasters

By the year 1372 DR, the number of Cloakmasters within the Shadow Thieves was reduced to 12, each of whom is served by ten guildmasters, who autonomously carry out day-to-day activities within their respective branch of operations. For example, one guildmaster leads all assassinations within their territory, another burglary, extortion, blackmail, bounty hunting, information gathering, smuggling, piracy, racketeering, fencing, pick-pocketing, street begging, etc.

Silhouettes

The officers and agents of the Shadow Thieves are aided by the efforts of the Silhouettes, decoy guildmasters who feign activities in cities and other areas of high activity. Their primary purpose is to attract attention from rival organizations, spies, and city officials so that that guild activities can continue unimpeded. They can also contract outside groups or guilds for individual contracts.

Relationships

The greatest foes of the Shadow Thieves are the Lords of Waterdeep, as they were exiled by the rulers of the city in their early years. They hold a near-equal animosity with the Arunsun magical family of Waterdeep for the exact same reason. Rival crime organizations, such as Xanathar Guild in Waterdeep and the Rundeen in Calimshan, offer obstruction to the Shadow Thieves' continued expansion.
It has been alleged that the Shadow Thieves have some arrangement with the Council of Six, as the merchants of Waterdeep are the main trading enemies of Amn. In truth, the council is fearful of the Shadow Thieves, knowing they are powerless to act against the expansive affiliation of thieves. With Grandmaster Rhinnom Dannihyr serving as one of the councilors on the governing body during the mid-1300's, a strong connection was formed between the powerful thieves guild and the government of Amn. By the late 1400's, House Dannihyr permanently held the seat of the Tessarch on the Council of Five and served as the secret masters of the Shadow Thieves.

Areas of Operation

Each of the council's Shades oversees an individual sect of Amn and the Shadow Thieves' outlying area of influence. The Shadow Council was headquartered in the Shadow House within Athkatla until the Godswar, but was later relocated.

• Alandor Sect: Athkatla, Crimmor, Purskul, Keczulla, Amnwater and northern Amn
• Caravan Sect: Riatavin, Tethyrian Highlands, Erlkazar
• Frontier Sect: Esmeltaran, Eshpurta, Hillforts, central and eastern Amn
• Sea's Sect: Imnescar, Murann, Trademeet, Velen, Dragon's Neck peninsula and southwestern Amn
• Sword Sect: Zazesspur, Port Kir, Mosstone, Wealdath
• Wine Sect: Myratma, Darromar, southern and central Tethyr

Another Shade leads operations in Saerloon and gathers intelligence throughout the Heartlands, while another operates from Baldur's Gate and leads reconnaissance in the Sword Coast.

History

Formation

The Shadow Thieves were formed as a singular guild by five charismatic rogues and assassins in the city of Waterdeep during the Year of the Raging Flame, 1255 DR. It functioned as any thieves' guild would for about 40 years, with the power of the group being shared among the families of the founders and their respective allies. In 1298 DR, Lhestyn Arunsun, who operated under the alias of the "Masked Lady", infiltrated the organization and killed four of the group's five founding members.
The surviving senior guild-leader, Carzakh "Deepshadow" Halandir, and the remaining Shadow Thieves escaped from the City of Splendors and went into hiding. It was then that Grandmaster Deepshadow swore the two oaths that the Shadow Thieves operated by for decades. Before he could resettle the guild in the lands south of Waterdeep and the Sword Coast, a reorganization of the group's hierarchy was in order. Feeling they were previously too reliant on actual thieves and hired killers, appointed himself, a trusted assassin and an ally who possessed training in arcane spellcasting as the group's leaders known as "the Three". They began recruiting wizards, priests of Mask and other spellcasters to the guild, allowing them to gather information and influence their contacts by magical means.

Growth

By the early 14th century DR, the Shadow Thieves had grown in power so much that the government of Amn was forced to publicly acknowledge their power within the nation. They began construction of their headquarters, the Shadow House, as well as their notorious training complex, the Assassins' Run, within the city of Athkatla in 1303 DR. While many thieves and killers flocked to the guild, the positions of power continued to be reserved for spellcasters. The former wizard Rhinnom Dannihyr quickly ascended within the ranks of the guild under the Three, and by 1311 DR had achieved the title of the guild's Master Spy.
Within ten years, they had taken control of most of the organized criminal activity in Amn, and by 1341 DR had a reach on half the illicit activity reaching from the High Moor down to Athkatla. During the Ten Black Days of Eleint, they infiltrated the cities of Ithmong, Myratma and Zazesspur within the realm of Tethyr. They continued their expansion southward into Calimshan but met resistance with tradition-bound criminals of the desert realm.

Reorganization

During their expanse into the lands of Calimshan, the inner circle of the Shadow Thieves increased its membership. The triumvirate known as the Three grew into the Shade Council, whose inaugural members were all assassins who worshiped the Lord of Murders, Bhaal. This ruling body was led by the newly-created title deemed the Guildmaster of Shadows, a post which was filled by Deepshadow.
During the Time of Troubles, on Eleasis 13 in the Year of Shadows, 1358 DR, the clergy of Myrkul created a mass-scale death spell that killed all the Bhaal-faithful assassins of the Realms in preparation for the Banite ceremony known as the Stealing of Souls, where the Lord of Tyrants would harness the power of their collective life force. Deepshadow and the entire Shade Council were all killed in a single moment. To fill the vacuum of power, sweeping changes came over the Shadow Thieves and a number of lesser agents were promoted in order to fill positions and roles among the guild's upper echelon. Rhinnom Dannihyr absconded his post as Grandmaster of Spies of Athkatla and became the second Grandmaster of Shadows. While fending off a number of murder attempts, he again changed the structure of the Shadow Thieves, and moved the organization's seat of power from the Shadow House in Athkatla to an "undisclosed location", beneath the Gilded Rose festhall within the city.
With the heavy losses of their many assassins, the guild lost control of their holdings within Calimshan, leading to the Darkstalker Wars, which nearly completely locked the Shadow Thieves out of the realm.

Domination of the West

The longest-living member of the Shadow Thieves was the Cloakmaster of Dessarin, the necromancer Marune "The Masked". While Marune operated under Kerindra Lynnrenno, the Shade of Baldur's Gate, during the mid-14th century, he had been a key agent of the guild during their years operating in Waterdeep the century prior. In 1370 DR, he unveiled a grand scheme for the Shadow Thieves to attain an unassailable edge over the Lords of Waterdeep, by distributing slippers of shadowwalking to the guild's highest-ranking thieves. These agents could then effortlessly navigate Waterdeep's shadows, beyond the reach of the city's Lords.
As Waterdeep fell on hard times around the Year of Wild Magic, 1372 DR, the Shadow Thieves got an opening they were quick to exploit. For over five years, the guild slowly came to dominate criminal activity in the Dock Ward, Southern Ward, and Trades Ward while the North Ward of the city was at risk being infiltrated as well.
By the time of the Second Sundering, the Shadow Thieves had come under complete control of the Dannihyr family of Eshpurta, who maintained a seat on the Amnian Council of Five.

Type

Guild, Thieves